Breath of Fire IV is the latest classic with an old PC port to be resurrected by GOG’s ongoing preservation program. It’s available DRM-free for just $10 and makes one of the great underrated RPG franchises available to a whole new set of players for the first time in over a decade.
Developed by Capcom and released on PlayStation back in 2000, Breath of Fire IV follows a blue-haired warrior named Ryu who can transform into a dragon. An evil emperor threatens the land and seeks to become an all-powerful god. It had a mix of old-school sprites and 3D environments combined with a decent soundtrack. The turn-based RPG formula did little to change things up, though there was a neat combo system. Mostly it nailed the basics, which isn’t something you could say for every Japanese RPG flooding the PS1.
The GOG version includes improved controller support, restores a bunch of missing environmental sounds, fixes other known crashes and bugs, and generally makes the game play nice with modern PC setups (if you’re playing,?use this guide to dramatically improve the pixel art). The company has been maintaining a “dream list” for PC ports to restore as part of its ongoing preservation program, and as an article on the storefront that delves into some of what made Breath of Fire IV unique points out, the Capcom game was at the top of the list with a passionate fanbase behind it.
“I want to cry!” wrote one fan on the GOG review page for the game. “I missed this series so much. Its been 20+ years. This series is nowadays almost forgotten. Hell, people were not even born when this released! But god damn it is a MUST play title.” Another wrote that they were too sad to see the game end all those years ago and so they never actually beat the final boss fight. Maybe they will now.
The Breath of Fire series began on the SNES in 1993 and was followed a year later by a very bold but uneven sequel. Both games were later ported to Game Boy Advance while Breath of Fire III and IV took the series into 3D on PlayStation. Capcom finally broke with the series’ beloved but increasingly stale conventional formula for Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter on PS2 which traded medieval fantasy for science fiction, changed the isometric view to third-person, and introduced hybrid real-time action elements and a story that unfolded over multiple playthroughs like a roguelite.
It was new, exciting, and sold terribly, and the Breath of Fire franchise has been all but dead since. Capcom briefly brought it back with a free-to-play mobile MMORPG called Breath of Fire VI. It was never localized outside of Japan and ceased operation within a year. The older games have been increasingly hard to play on modern platforms as well. Breath of Fire I and II are only available through Switch Online. Breath of Fire III and IV can only be purchased on PS3 and Vita. Dragon’s Quarter has never been brought back as part of Sony’s PS2 classics program.
Could that finally change? The Capcom of today is very different from the one of even a decade ago. Flying high on the success of Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, it’s recently dived into its back catalog to revive both Okami and Onimusha with full-fledged sequels. Last year’s Metaphor: Refantazio and this week’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 have proven there’s still an appetite for classic turn-based RPGs with modern visuals and high-quality storytelling. Maybe it’s time Capcom returned to the Breath of Fire well. The franchise has sold 3.3 million copies, just 1 million less than Okami, which benefited from an HD remaster that’s currently available everywhere but mobile.
Capcom could start the Breath of Fire renaissance with remasters similar to what we just got with 2025's decent collections for Lunar: Silver Star Story/Lunar: Eternal Blue and Suikoden I/Suikoden II. I mean, if Square Enix can give us an HD version of the infamously esoteric SaGa Frontier 2, Breath of Fire should be a slam dunk.
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